The present invention relates in general to data processing systems, and in particular, to data processing systems adaptable for coupling to USB devices.
Within the past few years, an association of private manufacturers has created a universal standard and method for linking many peripherals to a personal computer simultaneously. This standard is referred to as the Universal Serial Bus (USB). The USB is a communications architecture or xe2x80x9cbusxe2x80x9d that provides a personal computer with the ability to interconnect to a wide variety of devices or peripherals via a relatively simple cable. The cabled peripherals share USB bandwidth through a host-scheduled, boolean based protocol. The bus allows peripherals to be attached, configured, used, and detached while the host and other peripherals are in operation. The USB allows for the replacement of peripherals that have previously been attached to special-purpose interfaces and accessed by direct hardware methods.
Input/output (I/O) devices frequently are shipped with diskettes and/or documentation that contain installation or setup data, diagnostic programs, drivers, a tutorial, a xe2x80x9creadmexe2x80x9d file, advertisements, and other information. Such diskettes and/or documentation are often misplaced or unavailable when needed.
Additionally, whenever an update is created by the manufacturer for such a device, an e-mail or traditional paper mail notice needs to be sent to each of the users, and then such users will be required to manually access a website in order to obtain such updates.
What is needed in the art is a system and method for eliminating such diskettes, documentation, and update messages, but yet still provide the user with all of the advantages thereof Moreover, what is needed is a presentation of this information to the user that is controlled by the I/O device that is the subject of the information.
The present invention addresses the foregoing need. An agent is created that runs in the host machine that enables any compatible I/O device to control the host machine, the host machine""s other I/O devices, and the host machine""s communication capabilities. This enables the compatible device to interact with the user in ways that are device specific. The agent presents a common interface to the I/O devices so that host-to-host and operating system-to-operating system variations do not affect the interface. The common agent/device interface enables any compatible device to interact with the user in conjunction with information on the Internet. Once the agent is loaded in the host, any compatible device that is subsequently attached to the host can utilize the agent. Thus the agent need only be loaded once in any host.
Moreover the agent can be loaded into the host from an I/O device.
Alternatively, the agent software could have been packaged with the operating system, or could be downloaded from an Internet website. Further, an encrypted key could be used for security when downloading the agent over the Internet.
The device agent would detect when a compatible USB device is enumerated and would then query the device for device dependent information. This information would include what kind of information and software is available to support the device, where the information can be obtained, and/or software.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention.